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Stumbo, a native of Floyd County, was elected in 1989 to the state Court of Appeals from the 7th Judicial District, which covers 22 counties in Eastern Kentucky.

She was only the second woman to serve on the panel and the first to be elected without having first been appointed to the job, according to her official biography.

Four years later, she was elected to the Kentucky Supreme Court to fill an unexpired term. She was the first woman to win a seat on the high state’s highest court without being appointed first.

She won a full term in 1996. Stumbo wrote new rules to make the discipline system for judges more open and headed a pilot program to create a system of family courts across the state.

After being defeated for re-election to the Supreme Court, Stumbo won election to the Court of Appeals in 2006 and has served since.

Stumbo is a member of the Alumni Hall of Fame at the University of Kentucky College of Law and and at Morehead State University and has received a number of honors, including the Women Lawyers of Achievement Award from the Kentucky Bar Association for Women.

It is Bevin’s purview to appoint a replacement for Stumbo.

There will be an election next year for the unexpired portion of Stumbo’s term, which runs through 2022.